OPINION

The Michigan Daily
01he M~irbigan B atlu
Vol. XCV, No. 31-S
95 Years of Editorial Freedom
Managed and Edited by Students at
The University of Michigan
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the
Daily Editorial Board
Shooting blanks
G UNS DON'T kill people; people kill people, some say.
It's true, in the end, a human being is responsible for
killing, not a gun. But a gun acts as a catalyst for killing.
Violent crime becomes "cleaner" and takes less effort
with a pistol in hand.
It seems difficult, in a large diverse society, to regulate
potentially violent people. What criteria would one use to
determine if a person might become violent in the future?
It seems much more realistic to regulate guns.
This is part of the philosophy of gun control that has been
in place for the past 17 years. These laws were put in place
after the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and
Robert F. Kennedy.
In a major setback of this philosophy, the National Rifle
Association succeeded in convincing the Senate that
weaker gun laws will promote the common good. The
Senate voted 79 to 15 last week to make it legal to buy a gun
outside the purchaser's home state. Other provisions would
make it more difficult for Federal law-enforcement of-
ficials to inspect gun dealerships.
Many supporters of the bill say that the gun control laws
aren't working, so why should innocent citizens put up with
this burden?
The fact is the gun control laws are helping. Fifteen
police chiefs asked the Senate to keep the current laws in-
tact. But the Senate didn't listen.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) offered an amendment
that would allow the ban on the inter-state sale of guns to
be lifted for rifles and long guns, but not for hand guns.
Kennedy said that hand guns have no legitimate use in
sporting events and were used primarily for violent
crimes. The amendment was defeated.
The bill now moves to the House for action. What the
Senate failed to realize is that the current laws may be
weak, but we shouldn't do away with them. The House is
encouraged to take steps toward strengthening gun control
laws. The country needs stronger gun control laws, not
weaker ones.
1
Letters to the Daily should be typed,
triple-spaced, and signed by the in-
dividual authors. Names will be withheld
only in unusual circumstances. Letters
may be edited for clarity, grammar, and
spelling.

Tuesday, July 16, 1985

Page 5

LETTERS TO THE DAILY
Police at a demonstration
To the Daily: may wish to find that out particularly theater during the demonstration
I'd like to know why an unpreceden- in light of a recent documented were not needed. So, Sgt. Cygan is
ted five police officers showed up at a dispute over inadequate police obliged to answer to the public, why,
peaceful citizens demonstration in coverage on campus, and of then, were those two extra officers
front of State theater last Saturday, documented two-, three-hour and there, night sticks poised at their
July 6, at approximately 9:15 p.m. longer lag times for police response to sides, when Ann Arbor tax payers
what's more, at least two officers calls on campus. Sgt. Cygan may tell need them in other places of the city?
ostentatiously pulled out their night your reporter, as he told me, that at -Dee Sojka
sticks and then visibly tucked these least two of the officers there at State July 9
down at their sides, as they stepped
out of the police vehicle in front of the
State theater. I say that this is "n
ir-nws":h~inx Plitical cartoon disturbing
precedented" and unprovoked, 1.1o ii a a to n d s u b n
because that quiet community protest
had occurred almost every Saturday To the Daily:
evening in front of State Theater since The Opinion page of the Michigan symbol as a torture device is
April without the need for threatening Daily carried a political cartoon by disgusting and reminisenterof the
police surveillance. "Bering" (Daily, July 10). The car- blatant anti-Semitism fostered by
Last Saturday I myself participated toon depicts an Arab in the process of Nazisism and Stalinism. The cartoon
in the peaceful protest against the en being crushed by a torture machine, might have appeared in Hitler's
masse firing of skilled State theater the wheel of which is a Jewish star. propaganda organs or recent issues of
projectionists, who have no recourse Pravda.
to saving their livelihoods since I find this cartoon disturbing, in Such cartoons deserve no place in
November 1984. The new owners of that it attempts to remove culpability an enlightened press. The hatred
State theater (and Campus and for worldwide terrorism from its per- espoused by them must truly be
Wayside theaters), by the name of petrators and instead, to place blame called "uncivilized."
Keraostes, have no right to step into on the victims of terrorism. Further- -JackJSamuels
our community from outside, im- more, the cartoon's use of a religious
plementing unfair labor practices,
running films in a shoddy fashion due
to poorly-paid. projector people,
neglecting safety in some instances,s
and charging outrageous prices in the -
theater. Now, above all, they have no
right to summon the police to their To the Daily: cartoon you are only alienating your
beckoning call with a show of force I am writing to express my in- cars yose number is already
when community members dignation with a cartoon that ap- readers, hinigwhosase numberiased
peacefully demonstrate their peared in your paper (Daily, July 1 shrinking because of your biased
grievances with Kerasotes of State I find that cartoon distasteful, anti- selection of news and sigle-mided
theater. semitic, anti-American, and offen- editorials.
One of your reporters may wish to sive. The cartoon implies that the As a former Soviet citizen, I must
ask Police Sgt. Cygan, one of the five hijacking of the TWA plane by Shiite tell you that Pravda would be proud to
officers present at State theater last terrorists is a justified reaction to reprint your cartoon!
Saturday, exactly why so many of- alleged Israeli-American terrorism. -Sergei Kan
ficers were required at that point in I think that by printing this type of July 10
the city at that time. Your reporter

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